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by Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at
6261 AAAK, May 2021 JC-PG
Africans Deserve Reparations! ‘Cause, Black Lives Matter!
Blessings of IMANI (FAITH) Victorious G-o-ds, Esteemed Elders, Sis-Stars, Bro-Stars and Youthful Revolutionaries!
May our Divine Mother-Father Creator of and in All – and incredible Ancients and Ancestors from millennia past, yesteryears and, literally, yesterday – find you and (y)our extended Family staying in positive and healing Spirit.
WE hope you and yours are continuing safety practices … by masking up; physically distancing; a supreme live-t (“die-t”) with veggies, fruits and multivitamins; drinking plenty of clean water; meditation and prayer; exercise and healing sun rays; your social connections, especially by phone, online and letters; as well as conducting your research to self-determined medicinals or vaccinations, etc. Asé.
Honoring our new Ancestors
WE remember and honor the lives and special contributions of our new Ancestors. These include ROMAINE “CHIP” FITZGERALD, former member of the Black Panther Party’s Los Angeles chapter. Baba Chip had been under torturous lockdown for 51 years! The State of California refused to offer him compassionate release and even kept him shackled while he lay in a coma during his final days. Asé.
LADONNA BRAVE BULL ALLARD, Indigenous Lakota storyteller, water protector and environmental justice leader, in the Dakotas. Asé. RAMSEY CLARK, former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson, who became a major advocate for world peace and exposure of the usa’s continuing crimes against humanity for the past six decades.
And, our good friend, Baba DAVID ROBINSON, a long time Bayview resident whose image appeared in these pages last month as WE honored new Ancestor GENE HENNEN. Long Live the Spirit, legacies and numerous contributions of these new and all our incredible Ancestors. Asé. Asé. Asé-O!
The Verdict
The People’s verdict WE have been waiting for is in. The terrorist capitalist-imperialist-colonialist-apartheid-fascist system has been found Guilty on all fronts! Guilty on the charge of murder and crimes against humanity! Guilty for crimes against nature and our environment! And, for horrific robbery of Indigenous nations, criminal enslavement of Africans and exploitation against labor and the working people worldwide: Guilty!
Re-open and try police murder cases like TAMIR RICE, ERIC GARNER and WE would add SANDRA BLAND, BREONNA TAYLOR, OSCAR GRANT III and hundreds of others who were not tried in federal court.
Indeed, one vicious kkkiller kkkop, Derek Chauvin, was convicted on the basis of overwhelming factual evidence as well as the collective Power of our voices and mass protests and actions displayed over the past year. However, let’s keep it real-for-real.
White officers murdering and injuring Black and Brown residents have actually accelerated around the usa, as well as here in the Bay Area, since this first in a series of Minneapolis police trials began in March. So, WE join with groups like the National Action Network, led by Rev. Al Sharpton, who are demanding the Biden-Harris administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland to re-open and try police murder cases like TAMIR RICE, ERIC GARNER and WE would add SANDRA BLAND, BREONNA TAYLOR, OSCAR GRANT III and hundreds of others who were not tried in federal court. As the Community Ready Corps say here in Oakland: “Get Ready! And, Stay Ready!” Asé.
Commemorating International Workers’ and African Liberation days
Every year, WE working people around our planet gather to commemorate International Workers’ Day on the first of May. IWD was born out of intense struggles in one of my former home towns, Chicago, in 1886.
To this day, laborers from many sectors continue our fight for a high quality of life for All people, solidarity across false and divisive racial-ethnic-nationality-gender lines, living wages, safe working conditions, the right to unionize, equality in our workplaces, healthy communities, protections from the vicious police and armed corporate “security” and racist vigilante forces as well as our COLLECTIVE POWER!
This year, in the Bay Area, WE will gather on Saturday, 1 May, 10:30 a.m., at the Embarcadero in San Francisco. From there, marchers, led by the fabulous Drill Team of our revolutionary International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU) will proceed down Market Street for a rally at Civic Center. If they haven’t already endorsed this gathering, please have your union and co-workers join us. Asé.
African Liberation Day began in May 1963 to commemorate the founding of the Organization of African Unity, now known as the African Union. ALD became popularized in the early 1970s, when thousands of mostly younger activists from the African Diaspora, including many of us in the usa, were led to Pan-Africanism.
WE began to build major political and material support for the anti-colonial, independence and liberation movements around southern and western Africa that were mobilizing to oust the European oppressors. And, partly due to our solidarity and advocacy, many were successful. However, the might of imperialism combined with corruption in high places has caused many setbacks. Therefore, our struggles continue … ‘til Victory! Asé.
For a listing of African Liberation Day events, visit: https://africanliberationday.net/.
Destination REPARATIONS
SAVE AND FREE MUMIA! As WE go to print, our beloved activist-journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s life is threatened by the state of Pennsylvania, once again. After suffering on death row for 30 years, and nearly the past decade in “general population,” Baba Mumia has had to endure a number of dangerous health challenges, including COVID-19, without humane medical care.
FREE MUMIA AND ALL OUR WRONGFULLY-IMPRISONED POLITICAL LEADERS! RIGHT NOW!
Most recently, as WE commemorated his 67th Sacred Birthday on 24 April, he was rushed to a hospital for open heart surgery. His family, supporters and legal team were not notified of the details of his condition and where he was being taken by the state.
Please continue to take actions to FREE MUMIA AND ALL OUR WRONGFULLY-IMPRISONED POLITICAL LEADERS! RIGHT NOW! Check out my song for Mumia from a quarter century ago when the State of Pennsylvania tried to execute him on the sacred birthday of Ancestor MARCUS GARVEY, 17 August 1995: https://soundcloud.com/user-424028583/save-free-mumia-abu-jamal-by-jahahara-c-p-1993.
Visit the website of our Jericho Amnesty Movement to learn more about the situations of Baba Mumia and so many brave warriors for justice and how you can assist them: https://thejerichomovement.com/.
Our National Black Farmers Association (NBFA), led by Elder John Boyd, achieved another significant victory! Due to the ongoing advocacy of NBFA and others, President Biden and Congress’ American Rescue Act includes up to $5 billion for our African American and other farmers horribly discriminated against by the US Department of Agriculture.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, our National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), in consultation with the NBFA, developed, as part of our then Seven Reparations Downpayment Demands, an immediate $2 billion to our dwindling number of African American farming families.
FREE THE LAND! REPARATIONS RIGHT NOW!
In 1999, WE achieved a $1 billion success in the Pigford vs. USDA lawsuit. Another $1.2 billion Pigford II settlement was secured in 2010. WE will continue our fight to save and secure even more much-needed acreage to build up our community’s independence and wealth. Asé.
See Baba John Boyd’s interview on Democracy Now! at www.democracynow.org and in the April 2021 edition of our Bay View newspaper. FREE THE LAND! REPARATIONS RIGHT NOW!
MAJOR MARK-UP ON H.R. 40! Our reparations movement achieved a major legislative advancement on H.R. 40, our “Commission to Study and DEVELOP REPARATIONS PROPOSALS FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS Act” in the U.S. House of Representatives.
On 14 April, thanks to many of you, this important bill was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 25-17. This means there will be a debate and vote on Reparations on the floor of Congress for the first time in nearly 150 years.
WE also need your action advancing S. 40, our companion legislation in the US Senate. Respectfully, i am asking all residents of California, to call our new U.S. Senator Alex Padilla at 1-202-225-2435 to insist he follow the positive actions of now Vice-Prez Harris and Senator Feinstein as co-sponsors of S. 40. Asé.
REGISTER NOW for our 32nd Annual Convention of our National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), 25-27 June 2021. As WE did last year, due to the global deadly pandemic and horrific capitalist economic depression, which have disproportionately devastated our families and communities of African ancestry, this will also be a virtual gathering. Go to: www.ncobraonline.org.
Finally, please take a moment to review, consider, sign-on and forward our “Change the Name of the ‘white’ House Petition” to your networks: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-change-name-of-white-house.
As most of you know, our Bay View Newspaper deserves (y)our support to keep producing and sharing the truth! So please send your check or money order in any amount to us at 4917 Third St., San Francisco, CA 94124. Or go to https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-for-the-bay-view-newspaper.
Continue to take (y)our righteous steps … knowing our Divine will do the rest. And walk in the Power of IMANI (FAITH) … on each and every day. Amen-RA Hotep! Asé.
#BlackLivesMatter #AfricansDeserveReparations #BringOurEldersHomeNow #AbolishPrisonsandPolice #LoveandDefendMotherEarth #BlackNewDeal
Jahahara Amen-RA Alkebulan-Ma’at is an ascendant of the Yoruba and Ewondo nations in Alkebulan-Afrika, a Baba (Elder), Pan Africanist, socialist and (inter)nationalist. He is also a “FREE-tired” community-labor-environmental and justice organizer; a writer, composer, yogi, martial artist, vegan and author of several books, including “Many Paths to Kujichagulia (Self-Determination).” In addition, he is a Life Member, former National Male Co-Chair and Acting West Regional Representative of N’COBRA. Take a listen to a few songs from his musical catalog at https://soundcloud.com/search?q=jahahara Invite Baba Jahahara to present at your group, school, spiritual gathering or event c/o support@africansdeservereparations.com or FONAMI, P.O. Box 10963, Oakland, CA 94610.
